Vancouver waiting to cash in on surge in travellers from China

Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun07.20.2012

Big Bus GM McKay Wood (centre) was recently in China on a Trade Commission trip ‘beating the drum for our company.’ Though he hasn’t seen an uptick in travellers, he believes it’s coming.Kim Stallknecht
/ PNG

Tourism Vancouver heads to China in the fall to lure more visitors like these in Gastown.Kim Stallknecht
/ PNG

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McKay Wood is preparing for the future by hiring more Chinese-speaking staff and drivers for Big Bus, a tour bus company that ferries visitors around Vancouver.

The crowds haven’t arrived yet, but in three or four years, China is expected to become the city’s biggest overseas market for overnight stays.

It will be the beginning of a wave of worldwide Chinese tourism that by 2020 is expected to reach 100 million outbound tourists annually, the result of a growing middle class and sharp increases in disposable income that allow more Chinese to travel.

Wood, general manager of Big Bus, and other tourism operators are doing what they can to ensure they are part of the coming boom.

“I was in China a couple of months ago [on a trade mission with the Canadian Tourism Commission] beating the drum for our company,” said Wood of Big Bus, which is affiliated with West Coast Sightseeing, Grayline Vancouver, Big Pink Sightseeing and SnowBus, which takes travellers to Whistler.

“We haven’t seen a huge uptick in our [Chinese] business yet, but I’m sure that will change,” he said, adding he’s hopeful his company will have strategic alliances with tour operators from China.

Opus Hotel Vancouver general manager Nicholas Gandossi said his hotel will be part of a Tourism Vancouver trip to China in November as it tries to brand itself as a “unique and stylish” hotel for Chinese visitors, particularly those who are increasingly showing up as a couple or with friends, instead of on tour buses.

Capilano Suspension Bridge’s sales and marketing vice-president Sue Kaffka said the number of Chinese visitors is growing quickly, but it’s still a small market for her company.

“Last year, we saw about 10,000 people from China. In a perfect world, that could double in two or three years.”

Kaffka noted her company is in touch with Chinese tour companies and now has Chinese-speaking employees — “that’s a huge benefit” — along with site maps in Chinese.

A Tourism Vancouver official said the United Kingdom is the city’s largest overseas market for overnight stays, but won’t be for long.

“By 2015 or 2016, China will probably become our single largest international market [outside the U.S.],” said Stephen Pearce, vice-president, leisure travel and digital marketing. “It’s a market that’s growing substantially.

“We’ve seen double-digit growth [from China] since 2010 and I think we’ll see sustained double-digit growth of 14 to 15 per cent a year for at least the next four years.”

Pearce said the numbers are still relatively small — “we get eight million overnight visitors on an annual basis and China [in 2011] was 122,000” — but positive feedback bodes well for Vancouver.

“They love the city and the quality of our Chinese cuisine. That’s a huge surprise for them and they share that with friends and relatives.”

He said 15 downtown hotels will participate in a Tourism Vancouver mission to China in November. “They’ll be looking for opportunities with tour operators and travel agents.”

But he said: “There should be more [Chinese] signage, more materials in Chinese, more interpretation of the destination, what they’re seeing.”

China’s importance to the local tourism industry was in focus on June 22, when a Sichuan Airlines’ Airbus 330 touched down at Vancouver International Airport on its inaugural flight from Chengdu, China with a full complement of 245 passengers.

The service will not only open up Sichuan province and its 100 million people to Canadian business people, but create a whole new market of Chinese tourists interested in visiting Canada.

One of the passengers on Sichuan Airlines’ inaugural return flight from Vancouver to Chengdu was Yuan Zhanling, chief of the economic and commercial office for the Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver.

“Chinese travellers love Vancouver and B.C. very much,” said Yuan, adding that the fact Canada has approved destination status — a tourism arrangement that makes it easier for Chinese visitors to travel to travel to certain countries — is very important.

Yuan said B.C.’s scenery, clean air and large Chinese-speaking population are big draws.

“There’s also more high-end travellers [from China]. They’re coming for golf, skiing in Whistler. When they saw the Olympic Games, it was good advertising [for B.C.].”

However, Yuan said more Chinese-speaking staff in restaurants, Chinese-language menus and signs in tourism hot spots and facilities like SkyTrain would be welcome.

Yuan also said many visitors complain about the difficulty obtaining Canadian visas in China.

While Yuan understands that Canada has the right to set its own rules, if more visas were issued, “you’d have more tourists here.”

In a piece he wrote about Canada receiving approved destination status from China in 2009, Asia Pacific Foundation senior research analyst Kenny Zhang said: “China-specific service is the key.

“It is highly unlikely that the same kind of services provided for U.S. tourists would be appreciated by Chinese customers, because of the significant differences in language, culture, taste and expectation.”

In an interview, Zhang said Canada is competing for Chinese tourists with many countries and regions, including Australia (the first western country to receive approved destination status, in 1999), Europe, the U.S. and China’s Asian neighbours, and that Canada needs to stay competitive.

He said the U.S., for example, has shortened its waiting period for tourist visa processing to one week, while visitors to Canada often have trouble even getting a visa.

Australia, he added, spends far more money than Canada marketing itself to China (Australia has seen a 17-per-cent annual increase in Chinese visitors since approved destination status was granted) while South Korea issues three-year tourism visas that can be used repeatedly. “Here, it’s a one-time visit.”

According to provincial tourism numbers provided by the Vancouver airport authority, 250,000 Chinese nationals visited Canada over the last year, with most visiting B.C.

The airport authority – which last month opened North America’s only World Duty Free location, in part to appeal to increasing numbers of Asian buyers — said the number of Chinese nationals entering Canada via YVR is up 40 per cent since Canada received approved destination status.

The Canadian Tourism Commission forecasts that Chinese travellers to Canada will spend $491 million in 2012 — 25-per- cent more than 2011 — and that China’s growth has the potential to generate an additional $300 million in tourism revenues by 2015.

As well, a Conference Board of Canada tourism report this month concluded that China’s share of overseas visits to Canada will rise “from only two per cent in 2001 to 10 per cent by 2016.”

Tony Yin, general manager of the Vancouver-based travel agency Five Star Travel, which organizes charter bus tours in Vancouver and Western Canada, said Chinese tourists make up about 40 per cent of his business and that approved destination status greatly helped.

“Last year, we had about 1,000 [Chinese tourists],” said Yin, noting that his Chinese numbers so far this year have doubled.

But Yin said more flights from China are needed and western-style restaurants should hire more Chinese-speaking staff.

Meanwhile, Canada West Ski Areas Association president and CEO David Lynn said a growing interest in skiing by the Chinese bodes well for B.C., although the sport is still in its early stages in China, with tourists more interested in B.C. resorts’ summer offerings.

“But it’s only a matter of time before the Chinese become significant players in destination skiing.”

The 2012 China Ski Study by the Canadian Tourism Commission, Tourism B.C. and Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation concluded the number of skiers in China rocketed from about 10,000 in 1996 to five million in 2010, with the number of Chinese resorts up from three in 1980 to 70 in 2012.

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